| The long haul home | |||||||||
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| Almost 400 km of high speed racing in Belgium
The starting grid at Spa Francorchamps in the Belgian Ardennes holds nineteen cars. And this was exactly the number that pre-qualified for the 26-lap marathon race. |
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| Three Ferraris in the arena; the crowds are excited. Per Einarsson pulls out from the pits after refueling and is overtaken by Rene Löwenstein. Søren Bærholm unlaps himself closely following the wake of the Flat Racing car. | |||||||||
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The start went pretty undramatic, as everybody knew what kind of carnage Eau Rouge can claim on an overheated first lap. Twentysix laps of 14.1 km each is not won or lost in the first turn. After a few laps the ITR pitcrew grew anxious because the 312 of Peter Christiansen did not show on the downhill stretch in front of the garages; he had crashed and nobody heard from him until after the race. The car had disappeared, and he collected a 'did not finish'. Per Einarsson ran a splendid race, conserving the powers and mechanicals of the car whereby he could collect an amazing P13, which almost was exchanged for a 12 when he outran Flat Racing's Rene Löwenstein in the closing laps down the Masta straight. But places were swapped again in the Carriere section. Søren Bærholm came home last, but ran a steady race and ended up P16; mostly due to fall-out among the competition, but not more than 6 minuttes down on ex-redder Anton Norup in the green BRM - after 370 km of racing. |
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